I Am the Queen

My sister bought me a T-shirt (mine is a burgundy color):

I’ve worn it a lot this summer and it always generates a lot of comments. This is also the T-shirt I used as the pattern for the ones I’ve been making, because it fits me nicely.

In case anyone had any doubts, yes, I am the queen. Of the coop, if nothing else.

I saw the cardiologist yesterday. He recommends a cardiac ablation, which is a (relatively) simple procedure to inactivate the part of the heart muscle that is causing the atrial flutters. He said, “Given your medical history, this will be the procedural equivalent of having a tooth filled.” And it should resolve the problem completely. I asked if it could be put off until the fall, when things are slightly less chaotic, and he said yes. I have an echocardiogram scheduled for the first week of September. We will re-evaluate after that. He himself has had this procedure, which was reassuring. I am wearing a heart monitor for a week and I have to stay on one of the medications which was prescribed in the ER. I am off the anti-platelet drug and taking a baby aspirin daily, instead.

[Doctors always comment on the fact that I speak the language, but it certainly cuts down on wasted time and misunderstandings. I was also reminded, while reciting my long and complicated family medical history, how much havoc has been wreaked by that one MTHFR mutation.]

DD#1 texted us this picture last night:

It’s a black bear. She said that it walked up over the rocks from the beach and into their yard (she took the picture from their living room window). Having grown up in Montana, she is no stranger to wildlife, but that’s pretty close.

DD#2 is moving to a new apartment, but not by choice; her landlady’s daughter needs a place to live, so the landlady told the four girls currently living in the house that she wasn’t going to renew their lease at the end of August. DD#2 and one of her roommates (also a Gonzaga grad) will be moving to an apartment. They’ll be paying more in rent, unfortunately, because the housing market in Seattle is as nuts as it is in other parts of the country. I am just happy that she has a safe place to live. Nordstrom plans to have them come into the (downtown) office three days a week every other week, but the rest of the time she will be working from home. And she has been given more responsibility at her job as a merchandise analyst, which is no surprise. She’s good at negotiating, though, so I expect she’ll point that out at her next review and suggest that she be compensated accordingly.

I’m going to try to get ahead of the heat and get some work done in the garden this morning while it’s cool. We’re supposed to be close to 100 on Sunday. The binding attachments for my coverstitch machine came yesterday. I might play around with those this afternoon.

Hot and Cranky

Yesterday went sideways right out of the gate. The husband came downstairs and said, “Did you know we didn’t have any water pressure?” He had taken a shower Tuesday night, but by yesterday morning, the pressure in the tank was down to 10%.

He worked his way down the troubleshooting flow chart and discovered that the control box to the well pump wasn’t working. Being without water on a hot July day is not a good thing. He managed to get the control box rigged up so that it was working, but I was sparing with the water usage until he could get home with a replacement control box.

And the rest of the day never did quite get back on track. I couldn’t run the mister in the chicken yard to help cool the clucks because I didn’t want to risk the pump going out again. The chickens were hot and cranky and pecking at each other. I went into the coop mid-afternoon and discovered one of the black Jersey Giant pullets languishing on the floor. One of the big chickens was beating on her. (Chickens get very mean to each other when they are unhappy, and heat makes them unhappy.) I thought the pullet might be suffering from heat stress, so I brought her inside, put about an inch of cool water in the laundry tub, and stood her up in there while I splashed water over her. She revived nicely after a bit and spent the night in the laundry room in a crate.

Everybody is peckish, including the farmer. I have never hated a summer as much as I am beginning to hate this one. Yes, hate is a strong word, but it’s how I’m feeling. This heat wave has no end in sight, and it’s increasing the fire danger every day. I worry about the husband being out in the heat all day, although he seems to have a much higher tolerance for it than I do.

I brought in what was left of the peas and cut a whole bunch of lettuce because it’s getting ready to bolt. We’ll be eating a lot of salads this week. The raspberries are coming on and we’ll need to start picking those this weekend.

I knocked out another T-shirt yesterday afternoon to test out my finished pattern. I think I have nailed it. This was some 100% cotton jersey from some unknown source. I’m systematically going through my pile of T-shirt fabrics and making them up into actual garments. A T-shirt takes about two hours, start to finish. The sleeves in this version are much better. I also experimented with coverstitching around the neckband:

I am not sure how I feel about it. It adds a nice detail and helps to keep the neckline flat, but it puts more thread into that area. Eh. I’ll wear this for a while and see.

Hot July Garden

I got a good bit of work done in the garden yesterday morning. I quit when my string trimmer ran out of string. I have a replacement spool, but it was getting too hot to work out there. I’ve stopped looking at the forecast for the rest of the month because it’s exactly the same every day. Hot and dry. One of the currant bushes—a variety called Belaruska—yielded up about five cups of ripe currants. I’ll probably get that much again in a day or two. The other currant bushes should be ready by then, too.

The melons, cukes, and zucchini have taken off in this heat. The peas are about done, though, and the lettuce looks ready to bolt. The potatoes are starting to die back and fall over. The lavender hedge is stellar:

I have two other lavender hedges started in other parts of the garden. Those plants are big enough this year to be blooming, too.

It has occurred to me on more than one occasion that I could have a really nice commercial lavender patch out here if we didn’t need to grow vegetables. The conditions are perfect.

Moving on before I end up with something else to do . . .

I came in from the garden and got cleaned up and finished tweaking the T-shirt pattern. Generally, when I trace an existing garment, I add a fair bit of slop. Excess fabric can always be removed, but it can’t easily be replaced. I got the upper bodice fitted the way I wanted and then removed about an inch at either side of the body before deciding where I wanted the hem. As I altered the garment, I made the corresponding changes on the pattern pieces. The last step was to coverstitch the sleeve and bottom hems. The neckband still needs a line of coverstitching, but by then, it was time to leave for Ruler Club at the quilt store. I wore the T-shirt into town for some field testing. The only further change I plan to make is in the sleeves. While they are not uncomfortable, the current sleeves are a bit snugger than I would like, so I’ll redraft that sleeve pattern piece today. Otherwise, the fit is just about perfect. The T-shirt looks good, feels good, and—most importantly—I am not constantly tugging it down because it’s too short. The hem on my shirts looks best at a point considerably longer than what’s available in stores, which is why I am making my own tops.

I am not crazy about the fabric. It’s a lovely flower print, but it reads as a peachy-orange which is NOT a good color on me. I am sure it was a clearance fabric from Joanns that I bought specifically to use for making a muslin and thus served its intended purpose. We’ll see how this pattern looks made up in the hot pink Laguna Cotton. Hot pink is definitely my color.

We all had a good laugh when I got to the quilt store for Ruler Club. The owner does a Facebook Live video every Tuesday morning. She made a point of mentioning the upcoming serger class in yesterday’s video, but she stated that it was scheduled for the third Thursday of July—which is tomorrow—instead of August. I got a panicked call later in the morning from one of the employees who asked me to verify the date. I am glad there is interest in the class, but I am not ready to teach it this week!

Next month is the last month of Ruler Club. We talked about what to do next. We could do the next Handi-Quilter club, but Amanda Murphy and Angela Walters also have ruler club-type programs. We decided to do the Amanda Murphy one next because she not only teaches each ruler, she has a printed top for practicing with it.

And I suspect that at some point this fall or winter, I’ll be teaching a draft-your-own T-shirt and/or leggings class. Once people get comfortable with their sergers, they’ll want to move on from making napkins, receiving blankets and baby beanies.

Meet Foghorn

The little rooster that came with our batch of pullets has started crowing. He needs practice. The husband christened him Foghorn, which is appropriate as he looks like one:

We have started rooster training. He follows me around the coop like he knows that I am the person who dispenses scratch grains, but he’s not quite brave enough to eat out of my hand yet. Dave did the same thing, although Dave never would let me feed him. It doesn’t matter. My goal is to get the roosters to be comfortable around me and other humans.

I am not sure we’ll keep him. Three roosters is a handful, and Dave doesn’t like competition.

There is a garter snake out by the chicken yard. I have almost stepped on it twice because it likes to hide in the grass. It is not a small garter snake. I just hope it doesn’t accidentally slither into the chicken yard and get eaten. When I saw it yesterday, it was heading into the old herb garden, which is a good place for it.

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I stopped by one of the plant stores yesterday on my way out of town. They had tables and tables of foot-high basil plants for $1.00 apiece, so I bought six and will put them in between the tomatoes. I also got a few other herbs and flowers to stick out in the big garden. I need to spend a few hours working out there this morning before it heats up. I blanched some peas the other day and got those into the freezer. I see blackcurrants that need to be picked, too. Cathy gave me a recipe for blackcurrant curd that I want to try. I think it will be delicious mixed in with yogurt.

I really wish it weren’t so hot. I could be getting more done in the garden, especially infrastructure-wise, if I could stand to be out in this heat. And every time the tones go off for our fire department, I worry that it’s going to be a wildfire. Eastern Washington state is getting hammered by fire activity, and there have been brush fires in both Seattle and Spokane within the city limits. That’s just bizarre.

Have I mentioned that I am not a big fan of summer?

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The quilt store where I am teaching serger classes was awarded Bernina District Dealer of the Year for the Pacific Northwest. I think they beat out the big quilt store in Spokane, which is quite an achievement.

I traced one of my favorite T-shirts yesterday to make a pattern. The muslin needs a few tweaks—I made the shoulders a smidge too wide and the armscye needs to be scooped out a bit. I may also have to adjust the sleeve cap, but I’ll see. The fabric is a cotton/spandex I bought at Joanns last year. I’m using it as my test fabric, but once I get the fit right, I should be able to wear this top. I’ll trace a final copy of the pattern and then make myself a batch of shirts using the fabric I got in Missoula.

I also found a full yard of black ponte knit—it’s a heavier knit, almost as heavy as scuba knit—on the remnant rack at Joanns yesterday. It is just enough for me to make the Kensington skirt from Liesl & Co:

I plan to make view A, which is the plain pencil skirt. I haven’t sewn with ponte yet and I want to try it. What I’d really like to make myself are some nice ponte knit pants to wear during the winter. They wouldn’t be as fitted as leggings, and I should be able to tolerate the spandex.

I like pattern drafting, especially with knits. There is a lot of overlap with drafting knitted sweater patterns. Drafting also lets the technical half of my brain out to romp around.

Sunday Morning Philosophy Class

I went to Missoula yesterday. DD#2 asked me if I was bored; it isn’t so much boredom as the fact that I get twitchy without a change of scenery periodically. The husband once went a span of 10 years without leaving the state of Montana, and even within the state, he didn’t venture far.

That makes me twitchy just thinking about it.

I briefly considered a quick over-and-back day trip to Spokane, but it’s back up in the 90s again here, a wildfire is burning next to I-90 in north Idaho, and, of course, there are tourists everywhere. I am going to save my trip to Spokane for a long weekend or for the next time I go to Seattle.

The drive down to Missoula was lovely because it was early in the morning. The roads and the air were still clear. I know Missoula almost as well as I know Kalispell, so I mentally planned my route to hit the stores that were open first, starting with Kohls and then Joann Fabrics. Kohls had nothing—literally—just half-empty racks here and there. I can’t decide if that is because of supply shortages, the fact that Dillards is the only store left at the mall, or a combination of both.

Joann Fabrics was devoid of people, but I found some fabric I wanted. Even though Joann is a large chain and has the same products at all of its stores, not all of the stores have the same selection. Ours, for some reason, is very thin on apparel fabrics and heavy on outdoor fabrics, fleece, and flannel. The knits section consists of cotton/polyester blends, polyester/spandex, or rayon/spandex blends. I am not a big fan of cotton/poly knits, and I really only wear slinky rayon/spandex to church. If you venture into the juvenile fabric section, it is possible to find 100% cotton knit in bright colors (yay!) and cotton/spandex knits. However, the cotton/spandex knits are mostly juvenile prints. I don’t really want to wear a T-shirt with dinosaurs on it. The Disney section also has cotton/spandex prints (more on that in a moment).

[The husband asked why I was looking for cotton/spandex knits if I am allergic to spandex. I am, but I can tolerate a small amount. These knits only have about 4%. My bra has more spandex in it than that and I have to tolerate wearing a bra (and tolerate is the correct word, because it does make me itch). It’s usually leggings and other kinds of close-fitting garments that give me trouble.]

I therefore enjoy going to other Joann stores to see what their selection is like. This one had a much bigger selection of cotton/spandex knits than our store, and I came out with enough fabric to make two T-shirts for myself. One of them is this cute S’mores print, which I think I can pull off:

I left Joanns and headed to the Good Food Store, then stopped by Goodwill. I am still searching for another large dog crate for next year when we get piglets. I also popped in to Vicki’s Quilts Down Under. This is the store that is the fabric version of an archeological dig. If you need an out-of-print fabric line, she might very well have it. I headed for a back corner where I knew she kept the bolts of knit fabric. It was a dark corner, and I had to move some bolts to uncover other bolts, but I found what I was looking for. I left Vicki’s with two more pieces of cotton/spandex. One was a hot pink Laguna Cotton from Robert Kaufman—the lovely people who bring us Kona—and one was a periwinkle and white print from Cloud 9. I was going to order some Laguna Cotton anyway, but now that I know she carries it, I’ll buy from her.

I tried to visit The Confident Stitch, which is downtown, but there was some kind of big market/festival going on—the kind where it’s nearly impossible to drive through the area because pedestrians just walk out into the street without looking—and I knew I wasn’t going to find parking. I extricated myself from that mess, stopped at another thrift store, and then went to The Book Exchange to check out the quilting and sewing books. I found this gem:

The Ultimate Serger Answer Guide was published in 1996, but it’s chock full of all sorts of useful information. Each page is devoted to one serger problem with a list of possible solutions. (“Are your edges hairy?” This is how to fix that.”) This is the kind of book I would hand out in a beginning serging class. Unfortunately, it’s out of print.

I left Missoula early, around 1 pm, because there was nothing left for me to do there. I have some thoughts about this trip, which I will sum up by sharing what I told the husband:

Like most 22-year-olds, when I graduated from college, I thought I had some idea of what life would hold. I was wrong. I didn’t expect a lot of what has happened, but what I really didn’t expect was that we would be living through the decline of the American empire. That was never on my radar screen. The husband, having been born a fully-formed cynical adult human being, has always been far more realistic. None of this is a surprise to him.

The last time I was in Missoula was just after Christmas, and the feeling of demoralization I felt there was overwhelming. I chalked it up to a side effect of the pandemic, but I think it’s more than that. When we first moved to Montana, going to Missoula was an adventure. They had a Target! And a Staples! And a Macy’s downtown! And a huge Hancock Fabrics! And a mall with lots of stores!

Missoula still has a Target and a Staples—and now quite a few other big box stores—but the Macy’s is closed. The mall lost Herbergers, JC Penney, and Sears (which is why I think there was nothing left at Kohls). The landscape is peppered with marijuana dispensaries that have taken over former mom-and-pop stores. Some of our favorite restaurants have closed. A couple of thrift stores went out of business. The quilt store/Bernina dealer behind Joann Fabrics closed at the end of May. (The owner retired.) The sense of demoralization was less noticeable yesterday than when I was there in December, but I suspect that some of that is due to the current influx of tourists.

On the one hand, I do think the rampant consumerism that has been a hallmark of this period in history needs to be scaled back. That’s not a bad thing. On the other hand, watching it happen in real time is sobering. It’s going away and I am not sure it’s ever coming back. And yes, I know that some of this is due to e-commerce, but not all of it. This country is polarized and splintered and I am not sure that’s fixable, either. (And you’re not going to get me to play the blame game with one side or the other, so don’t try.) The only person I can control, though, is me. It is up to me to navigate what’s coming with grace and humor. I need to own my part and deal with it, including my (sometimes unrealistic) expectations that I can have whatever I want at my fingertips whenever I want it. I guess I am just trying to grieve the losses ahead of time so that they aren’t such a shock when they happen.

We’ll see what happens, but I think a lot of people are going to be blindsided.

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I want to end this blog post on a happy note. At Joann Fabrics on Thursday, I happened upon a one-yard remnant of cotton/spandex in a Disney Frozen print. Our renters have a 5 year-old who loves to sing. Sometimes she stands on their porch and belts out songs from Frozen. When I hear her singing, it makes me smile. I thought she needed something out of this Frozen fabric—and it would give me an opportunity to practice my serging skills—so I made her a nightgown:

The pattern is from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom and it was easy to follow. Instead of a hem, I did a lettuce edging on the bottom ruffle. The neckline and armhole edges are bound with the same fabric. Her dad texted me a picture yesterday—she slept in it and then informed her parents that she planned to wear it all day.

I might talk about the differences in serging the various types of knit fabrics in a future post, because they can be significant.

Women of Talent

My mother has a milestone birthday coming up in November, but she still gets up every day to drive to downtown Cleveland to Peerless Metal Products, the company she owns with her business partner, Tom.

Today is the 25th anniversary of the company.

I can still picture the day she called to tell me that she and Tom were starting Peerless. I was sitting at the table in the kitchen of the mobile home we lived in before we built our house. “I’m taking your inheritance and starting a metal stamping plant,” she said. And I remember thinking, “Good, take it and make more.” She and Tom had met when both were working at a different metal stamping company in Avon Lake, Ohio. Tom was the plant manager and my mother was the bookkeeper. The owner was in absentia most of the time. She and Tom increased that company’s bottom line significantly. They recognized that they could do better running their own business, and Peerless Metal Products was born. The business started in one location in Cleveland, quickly outgrew the space, and moved to its current location.

My mother very much wanted to go to college, but things didn’t work out that way. She worked at Prudential Insurance while my father was in college getting his engineering degree. Once my sister and I were old enough to be in school, she went back to work as a waitress and bookkeeper at my grandparents’ restaurant. (For you Ohio folks, that was Mary’s Ice Cream Parlor on Rt 254 across from the Sheffield Center.) My grandmother closed the restaurant when I was a senior in high school. When I say that people in my family have a hard time sitting still, I’m not kidding. I think my father would have preferred for my mother to stay home. She tried, but she’s always been happier running a business. And she has been a great role model for her two granddaughters. Like most companies, Peerless Metal Products has had its share of ups and downs, but with my mother at the helm, it has weathered all of the challenges. Happy Anniversary!

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My friend, Sunnie LeBlanc, has an art show at a local gallery. Sunnie is part of our Mountain Brook community, although we have to share her with her friends and family in Texas during the winter. She lives next door to our pastor. I got to know her under less-than-happy circumstances, as I played for her husband’s funeral at our church. Sunnie is as cheerful as her name, though, and every year, I look forward to the day in spring when she returns to Mountain Brook.

Her show opened this week. She is doing “Easel Talks” every Thursday from 3-5 pm at the Bigfork Art and Cultural Center. I stopped in yesterday afternoon. Our pastor, Jeryl, came in shortly after I did, so the two of us were treated to a personal tour and discussion of both Sunnie’s paintings and those of her friend, Marnell Brown.

I find it fascinating to learn how other designers and artists approach their work. Sunnie says she gets most of her inspiration from the Montana landscape. Indeed, the work of both artists showcases the beauty around us, although they have very different styles. Sunnie described how she’ll go up to Glacier Park and make a small plein air painting on canvas to capture the essence of the landscape.

That small painting, along with a photograph, help to keep the image fresh in her mind while she paints the larger piece.

This one happens to be of Wild Goose Island, up in Glacier Park. Your piece of trivia today: Wild Goose Island is the second most photographed spot in the park. The first?—the “Welcome to Glacier Park” sign. Who knew?

I also chatted for a bit with Karen Straight, a fiber artist who has two large pieces hanging in the gallery, both done in needle felting. I wish you could see the one of the grizzly bear—the needle felting provides a realistic 3-D texture.

I am hoping to attend the artists’ reception this evening. Our Mountain Brook Ladies Club is providing the food “There will be shrimp! And wine!” Sunnie told us. LOL.

Gutter Lettuce

Our neighbor, Mike, was out in his yard yesterday morning so I popped through the woods to visit with him for a few minutes. He has a garden and started some of his plants in the greenhouse this spring. His garden is doing very nicely. I asked him if the patch of corn was where the bodies were buried because his corn is four feet tall already! He laughed and said that there was an old compost pile out there, so he just raked it into that spot before he planted the corn. Obviously, the corn likes it.

He also rigged up a very clever lettuce-growing system which I refer to as “gutter lettuce.”

The gutter is slanted and has a hole at one end for drainage. The red variety on the ends is Ruby—my very favorite—and the green is Green Ice (I think), which is new to all of us this year. (We shared seeds among our little group.) This view is looking south, and our pig pasture is on the other side of those trees.

We have some very prolific gardens in our little community!

I put down a lot of black plastic in my garden this year to kill weeds. I’m also in the process of consolidating and moving some things because we just don’t need to grow quite as much. That has come with a tradeoff, though. If I let my garden become feral, which it tends to do all on its own, I’ll get all sorts of wonderful surprises like a huge crop of cilantro. Or volunteer parsnips. I only have a little bit of cilantro this year, and no parsnips. The problem is that a feral garden produces a LOT of weeds. I need to figure out some kind of compromise.

I did buy a new tool. There is a long backstory to this, so buckle up.

The husband has a system for plowing and likes to put piles of snow in specific places in the yard. Our driveway is gravel. The result is that an awful lot of gravel ends up in the grass, and it’s an awful lot of work to rake it back into the driveway. This has been an ongoing problem for years. I don’t like mowing when there is gravel in the grass because the gravel gets thrown around.

At the end of last year, I ran across this:

It’s a Stihl Yard Boss and it comes as a small cultivator in its stock configuration. I don’t need a cultivator. We already have a Roto-Tiller—sized for the husband, naturally—although we try not to till too much. However, the Yard Boss has some optional attachments, one of which is rubber paddles designed for sweeping gravel out of lawns. Yay! Unfortunately, I decided to wait until this spring to buy one, and by the time I started looking, they were scarcer than hens’ teeth.

Our local Ace Hardware is a Stihl dealer. I asked them to order one for me at the beginning of May. And then never heard anything. I looked at all the Ace Hardware stores in Spokane. Nobody had any in stock. I assumed these were another victim of the supply chain disruptions.

The phone rang at lunchtime yesterday. It was an employee at our Ace Hardware store. He said that they had unearthed a box in their storage area that had my name on it and a note saying they tried to call me on May 23 but no one was home. Did I still want this Stihl Yard Boss that they had ordered for me?

[We have a device on our phone called a Sentry that will intercept an unknown number and play a message. The message says something to the effect of, “If you’re a telemarketer, hang up now. If you want to speak to someone, press 0.” If the caller presses 0, the number rings through and I know to pick it up (or it goes to the answering machine). Once it rings through, it gets added to the white list and all future calls from that number bypass the Sentry. Some people have no trouble figuring out that they need to press 0, but some people hear that message and just hang up.]

I said that yes, I very much wanted the Yard Boss and that I would be there in an hour to pick it up. This is a lovely, locally-owned hardware store, but it’s somewhat disorganized with a lot of people working at cross purposes. I am not surprised that they misplaced the box. This would have been more useful a month or two ago, before the grass grew up over the gravel, but at least we have it. I can use the cultivator to spot till the garden. The husband asked me to buy the broom attachment, too, so he can clean off concrete slabs. And next spring, we can sweep all the gravel out of the grass and back onto the driveway.

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Update on the laser printer: I once again have a functional printer, but it was a slog to get there. To be thorough, I ordered a new drum. However, the Brother Gen-u-ine Toner Cartridge still didn’t work, even with the new drum, so I went to the local toner place in town and bought a remanufactured toner cartridge. The guy there said that the printer reads a chip on the toner cartridge and that the chip likely was bad on that cartridge. (That right there was more useful information than I got out of talking to the person on the other end of the Brother customer service line.) He said that if the remanufactured cartridge didn’t work, I should bring it back, and that he would also be happy to look at the machine for me. I’ll be buying my cartridges there from now on. The remanufactured cartridge and new drum combo did the trick and now the printer prints again.

And lo and behold, I got a call yesterday afternoon from a Brother representative. I had filled out a survey after my attempts to get help from their support line failed. I gave them a “would not recommend” rating, which apparently kicked my complaint further up the chain. They said that if I sent them a copy of the receipt showing where and when I bought the cartridge that didn’t work, they would reimburse me for it. I had the Staples receipt on my computer, so that was a simple matter to take care of.

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That serger itch has been scratched thoroughly. I am going to meet with the class coordinator at the quilt store today and drop off my class samples for display. I was able to work all the bugs out of the rolled edge scarf project and now I want to do something else, not on the serger. It is probably time to finish the Slabtown backpack. I’d also like to make the Firefly Tote.

The Needle Makes the Difference

Apologies to my readers who aren’t fascinated by my serging experiments. This phase won’t last forever. It’s important to me to document some of this stuff, though, for my own future reference and in case it helps someone else avoid having to reinvent the wheel.

When I am looking for ideas for class projects, I see if there are similar tutorials on the internet. Seeing how other people communicate a technique helps me refine how I want to teach it. And I like to have resources for students to refer to after the class is over.

I went looking for a lettuce-edge scarf tutorial, because I thought that would be a good project to get students comfortable with that technique. Sure, we could make samples with plain old pieces of fabric, but sometimes, real-world projects come with problems that don’t show up in the samples. My index of suspicion went way up when I discovered that there were virtually no tutorials for lettuce edge scarf projects, and the one tutorial that seemed to be linked the most often had been taken off the sponsor’s website. Hmmmm. That indicates to me that there were possible issues that resulted in lots of questions or complaints.

{Or perhaps not. I’m speculating here, because content gets removed for lots of reasons. If the technique is easy, though, a Google search should bring up a couple dozen online tutorials for one project or another.]

Zede and Mallory Donohue, the mother-daughter duo behind the Sewing Out Loud podcast, made a YouTube video in 2012 where they discuss lettuce edge scarves. (The pertinent content is in the second half of the video.) They talk about an issue with these kinds of scarves, which is that the edge finish doesn’t always stay attached to the fabric. Instead, it lifts away and dangles out in mid-air, like this:

Zede and Mallory note that it’s important to make sure the fabric doesn’t pull away from the needle as it goes through the machine, but that was their only suggestion for avoiding this problem.

I made my first couple of samples of lettuce edging with a polyester/spandex blend knit. I had no issues. The lettuce edging was nice and substantial and didn’t pull away from the fabric. When I switched to this teal rayon/spandex blend, though, I started having all sorts of problems like the one you see in the photo above. It happened on the crosswise grain of the fabric and it happened even more on the bias. And even when the rolled edge stayed attached to the fabric, it lacked integrity. I don’t want to include a project like this in a class—it will do nothing but frustrate students.

I fiddled with the differential feed. I fiddled with the presser foot pressure. I serged with the knit side up. I serged with the purl side up. I even tried some wash-away stabilizer. Nothing helped. The stitches did not want to catch on the fabric. I changed to a different color of the same rayon/spandex blend. Same result.

I sat there and thought for a while. And then I heard a voice in my head.

Change the needle.

Not “change the needle” as in “the needle is worn out and you need a new one.” This was “change the needle” to a different type of needle. I was using an 80/12 jersey (ball point) needle. Theoretically, that should have worked.

We have a much wider variety of fabrics available these days, including a whole class of fabrics known as “performance fabrics.” These are the specialty fabrics for workout clothing, swimwear, and outdoor activities. With that has come an expanded selection of sewing needles. It used to be that you would go to the fabric store and have your choice of regular, ball point, denim, quilting, embroidery, and leather needles. Now there are Microtex, jersey, stretch, fleece, denim, leather, vinyl, embroidery, topstitching, metallic, quilting, and even cosplay needles. Some of those also come in chrome-plated or titanium-plated versions for high-speed sewing.

I use Schmetz needles almost exclusively. They are easy to find and work well. Schmetz has both a “jersey” needle and a “stretch” needle. What is the difference? From Schmetz’s website:

Jersey & Stretch needles have medium ball points. The eye & scarf differ. Use the Stretch needle when fabrics contain Lycra®, Spandex® or elastic. Use Jersey on knits & some stretch fabrics. Jersey & Stretch needles are sometimes interchangeable. Test needle, thread, and fabric combo for stitch quality.

The scarf is a scooped-out area on the back side of the needle, above the eye. Sailrite has an excellent photo on their website.) It helps the hook underneath the needle plate to loop the thread and make the stitch.

I found a 75/11 stretch needle in my stash and put it in the serger. And then I tried again—and this time, I got a beautiful lettuce edge with no unattached loops anywhere:

Changing the needle made the serging effortless. The stitches are firmly seated in the fabric and the wooly nylon spreads out evenly. Part of me is still baffled by such a simple fix, but I’m happy with the result. And I am confident now that this will make a good class project. I’ll include specifics in the supply list so students can get what they need ahead of time.

What Doesn't Work is Important, Too

“If you want to be a surfer, you’ll spend a lot of time paddling.
This tweet is not about surfing.”
—@Ryan Stephens, on Twitter

Sometimes it’s hard to see the value of paddling. When I reframed paddling as “research”—as in, “I am researching what works and what doesn’t”—I had a lot more patience for it, because the attempts that don’t work give me as much data as the attempts that do. It’s all about the data.

That’s as profound as I can be at 4:36 in the morning. (And Ryan Stephens is a good follow if you’re on Twitter.)

I am still wandering the rolled hem wilderness, although I think I’ve got rolled hems on woven fabrics dialed in. These are some of my class samples to take to the store.

I bought a yard of this textured woven because it reminded me of a knit-purl pattern. All of my textile interests have blurred together at this point. One yard of prewashed fabric yielded twelve 10” square napkins with a bit of fabric left over for testing. (I think a 10” square napkin is large enough for a meal unless you’re eating messy BBQ or something, in which case, you probably need a Wet Wipe. Or a hose.) I tried three different threads—one that coordinated, one that contrasted, and a variegated. I like the contrasting brown the best, but the choice is completely personal. The variegated would have looked better if the color changes had been planned out more carefully. The blue and yellow changes are obvious, but they are followed by a long section of what reads as a muddy dark color. Bleh.

I’ve moved on to rolled hem lettuce edges on knits with mixed success. They are easy to do on some kinds of knits but more challenging on others. I’m in the midst of trying to figure out why that is and how to compensate for the difficulties. I’ve got a few ideas to try out in the next research session.

I should note that this is not what I had planned for this summer, but I think we all know by now how that goes.

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The husband has lots of wonderful qualities, but one that I cherish most is his ability to make me laugh. Over dinner the other night, he said he had a funny story to tell me.

The husband was pouring concrete that day and two of the mixer drivers came down to stand in the hole with him while they waited for the concrete to start coming through the boom. The first mixer driver—we’ll call him Bob—said to the husband, “Hey, did you know that Rich” (the other mixer driver) “just got married?”

“Congratulations,” said the husband. “Did you choose the right woman?”

Rich looked confused by this question, so Bob helpfully chimed in with, “Schuster’s wife brings him a cold beer every day when he gets home from work.”

Rich (who seemed relieved that it was not a trick question), said, “Yes, my wife does that, too,” to which the husband responded, “Good, it sounds like she took my wife’s online course.”

—at which point I burst out laughing, because I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff. Also, I find it hilarious that I am some kind of paragon of womanly virtue among the mixer drivers. I do bring the husband a cold beer every day when he gets home from work, but if I were out working in the hot sun all day, I’d appreciate it if someone did that for me.

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The peas are about ready to pick. It won’t be a bumper crop this year, but I still have some frozen from last year. I am keeping a close eye on the raspberries; the canes look okay, but I am worried that the berries are going to shrivel up in this heat, so I’ve had the sprinkler on them every day. The zucchini tsunami is approaching and the gooseberry bush is just loaded.

If it works with the husband’s schedule and he’s home on Saturday, I might make a quick over-and-back day trip to Spokane. I need a road trip and a change of scenery. I am reluctant to leave with the wildfire danger growing, which is why I’d prefer to go on a day when he’s home.

Serger Summer

This is the state of my sewing area (one of them) at the moment:

I don’t usually make this big a mess. I tend to “clean as I sew”—much as I “clean as I go” when I’m cooking. I was in the throes of experimenting with decorative serger threads yesterday afternoon and this is what happened. (If you look closely, you can see the wine glass on the cutting table, LOL):

Every so often, Joann Fabrics has a BOGO sale on thread, and it was “buy three, get three free” this weekend. I usually load up on Maxi-Lock serger thread during these sales. This time, though, I bought some metallic and decorative embroidery threads. The quilt store where I have been teaching carries Wonderfil threads and recently got in the entire line of Wonderfil wooly nylon, so I got some of that when I was there on Thursday. I’ve been using Gutermann wooly nylon. (They call it “bulky nylon.”) I just can’t find the love for Gutermann threads. My Necchi doesn’t like them and much prefers Italian-made Aurifil. The Wonderfil wooly nylon is quite nice and the colors are deep and saturated. I believe that Wonderfil makes all of Sue Spargo’s embroidery threads, and she sets the bar pretty high.

[Threads are a whole subject unto themselves, and I appreciate having my store of spinning knowledge to guide me through choosing them. There are significant differences between brands. I got some Mettler thread with my Q20, and I’ve been using that for some piecing in order to use it up. The 50wt Mettler is considerably thicker than the 50wt Aurifil, however. Both are 100% cotton. I feel like the Mettler takes up too much space in the seams and makes pressing the units flat more difficult.]

I discovered that I really like the machine embroidery thread—it’s a polyester—for rolled hem edges on napkins. I used wooly nylon on the batch I made for DD#1 and it was fine for that fabric, but the machine embroidery thread takes it up a notch for more elegant napkins. I’ve got some rayon embroidery thread and I will try that, too.

I am not as big a fan of the metallic threads. I need to play around with them a bit more. I think they might be better in combination with an embroidery thread. They feel soft enough coming off the spool, but tend to be harsh and stiff in the fabric.

The most fun I had yesterday, though, was making lettuce edges:

Oh, the possibilities! I keep a big basket of scraps from past serger projects and use them for experimenting. I tried both the machine embroidery thread and the Wonderfil wooly nylon on this piece. The wooly nylon (on the right) makes a slightly more dramatic edge.

Not all of my experiments were successful. I tried edging one lightweight knit fabric and had all sorts of problems with both a rolled edge and a 3-thread narrow stitch. That fabric might require some wash-away stabilizer.

I’ve got a much better idea now of what will make good class projects, and I’ll have some class samples for display in the store later this week. Also, everyone on my gift list is getting napkins and scarves this year. You’ve been warned, LOL.

And Now, Mastery Classes

I had an appointment in town on Thursday, so I stopped in at the quilt store on my way home. The owner came out to my car to chat with me as I was on my way out. One of her employees is leaving. This employee currently teaches all the mastery classes, which are the classes that customers get when they purchase a machine. (I had a mastery class when I bought the Q20.) She wanted to know if I would be interested in teaching the serger mastery classes.

Oh, sure, why not.

To sweeten the pot, she said that when teaching these classes, I’d be considered an employee of the store, not a contractor, and I would get the employee discount. (Twist my arm.) I need to familiarize myself with the Bernina sergers and with what’s covered in their mastery classes, but that’s doable. I’ve already got copies of the Bernina mastery books.

She also ever-so-gently nudged me about deciding on a class for September and getting my class samples on display at the store. Store samples do help to generate interest in the class. When the class coordinator and I discussed future classes a few weeks ago, I suggested that the fall classes might focus on making Christmas gift items. That’s a big and wide category, though, so I need to narrow it down a bit.

I spend a lot of time thinking about how to structure my classes. A successful class is going to be one in which the goals are clearly laid out and students get a mix of both theoretical and practical knowledge. No one wants to sit through a two-hour Power Point presentation. I took a photography class like that once, at the community college, and I didn’t know any more about my digital camera at the end of the class than I did at the beginning. Finding that sweet spot where the theoretical and the practical come together is key. It also helps if the class progresses from easy to more challenging, so the students have a chance to build on what they’ve learned.

While I was in Alaska, DD#1 asked me if I could make her a batch of cloth napkins. We use cloth napkins here at Chez Schuster-Szabo, although ours have a simple mitered hem. I seized on this request as an opportunity to practice making rolled hems on my serger. When I got back to Seattle from Alaska, I picked up several packages of cloth napkins at Ikea. They were approximately 14” square and I thought I would cut them down and make rolled hems on slightly smaller napkins.

I spent yesterday working on that project. I used my 12-1/2” square ruler to mark the new size of the napkins, then set up my serger to make a rolled hem using regular serger thread in the lower looper and right needle, and wooly nylon in the upper looper. And I made lots of rolled hems.

Napkins will work for a class. I’d like to have at least a couple of projects, though, because there is always that one prodigy who gets through your class handout way before anyone else. Because a rolled hem flows naturally out of a three-thread narrow hem, we’ll start with a 3TN using some decorative thread in the looper. We’ll move on to some rolled hem napkins, and we’ll finish up—if time permits—making a lettuce-edge scarf, which is a rolled hem on knitted fabric. That’s ambitious, but the last project is optional. It could even be its own class. I am happy with that plan, and it will take me only a day or two to make up class samples.

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The Singer 9W is partially back together and looking very nice. I think I may put it into a treadle base. It doesn’t have a motor boss, so I can’t mount a handcrank easily. The 9W reminds me of a Singer 15 with pheasant decals that I picked up at an antique store in Whitefish in 2010. I cleaned it up, put it into a treadle base, and sold it. That machine literally sang as I sewed on it. It was the oddest thing. I couldn’t tell if the machine was happy to be sewing again or what, but it was a beautiful sound. This is why I do this.

We’ve “cooled off” to the upper 80s and low 90s here. It’s still hot, but not as brutal as being up near 100. The hot-weather crops are going nuts. A couple of my tomato plants have already set fruit, which is unheard of, and I’ve picked several cukes for our salads, also unheard of. The lettuce and the peas are struggling, though. It got way to hot way too soon for them.

Every year is different. Every year is different. Every year is different.

The forecast doesn’t change much for the next couple of weeks—mid-90s and no precipitation, although it’s hard to predict those afternoon pop-up thunderstorms. Hopefully some of them will come with rain.

A Couple of Successes and a (Temporary) Setback

The Singer 500 Rocketeer needs just a bit more work before it’s ready for prime time. I set it aside and pulled the 401 off the shelf to work on yesterday. Even though it was terribly dirty, it looked like an easy cleanup and it was. A true beauty was hiding underneath all that grime. She sparkles.

I have a specific recipient in mind for this machine, if it passes its sewing test. I need to put my hands on the correct power cord so I can check it out. The guts of this machine are nearly identical to those of the Rocketeer with a few minor differences.

[I think I paid $5 for this machine at a thrift store in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. It was hiding under a table.]

My other success is huge. Way back in November 2019 I picked up a Singer 9W locally off Craigslist. In a weird twist of fate, I had also run across the specific (and uncommon) presser feet for that very machine a few days earlier at the local Goodwill. Unfortunately, the machine didn’t have a bobbin case. I ordered one off eBay but either it wasn’t the correct bobbin case—that model started out as a Wheeler and Wilson machine before the brand was acquired by Singer, and there are some weird issues with parts—or I didn’t have it installed correctly. Long story short, I broke the bobbin case.

I don’t break things often, but when I do, I break them irreparably.

I’ve been watching eBay since then, because I am not content for this machine to serve out the rest of its life as a mantle decoration. Last week, a listing came up for a bobbin case that potentially matched that machine. I ordered it. The bobbin case came in yesterday’s mail. I VERY, VERY carefully installed it into the 9W—which has been sitting on the floor of my office looking at me reproachfully for 18 months—and it fit.

It is a bear to get seated properly, which may have been the issue the first time, but once it’s in place, everything turns smoothly. I have two bobbins for it. I’ll have to take it out because, as you can see, the machine hasn’t yet been cleaned. I’ll be very careful when I put it back in. (It is possible to remove the bobbins without removing the case, so once the machine is cleaned and the case is back in there, I won’t take it out again.) This machine has leaped ahead to the front of the line because I am eager to see what it looks like when it’s prettied up.

Slowly but surely, I will get through the backlog of machines.

The Necchi is back together and sewing—sort of. There is some issue with the tension assembly. I took it apart and reassembled it, with pictures, and I am fairly sure that the assembly itself is fine. For some reason, though, the part inside the machine that is supposed to engage it, isn’t. I need to check with my friend and find out if her mother actually sewed on that machine.

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I am trying not whine about the weather (with little success, obviously), but this heat is awful. And we have this strange thing happening where we’re getting gusty east winds for a couple of hours around 7 pm every night. Our (one) bedroom window faces east, and the gusts of wind blow the shade all over the place. They don’t do a lot to cool things down, either. I’ve been having to pull the shade up when I go to bed, but it stays light here until about 10:30, so then it’s like trying to sleep in the middle of the day. I may put up one of the heavier insulated shades tonight to see if that helps. Or try to find a portable AC unit.

I have an online subscription to the Ketchikan newspaper, and I got quite a giggle out of a recent headline—apparently, Ketchikan set a high temperature record last Sunday. Curious, I clicked through and read the article. The record-setting high temp was 80 degrees. At this point, it wouldn’t take much coaxing to get me to move to Alaska.

Trying to Stay Cool

When the husband moved into his new shop, I took possession of the old garage and put all my sewing machine stuff out there. I’ve got a nice workbench with good lighting and all my supplies close at hand. The old garage stays nice and cool, so I spent most of yesterday out there working on a couple of machines. While I don’t tinker with them as much as I used to, I still enjoy it.

Last fall, a friend of ours was cleaning out her mother’s house and came across a Necchi sewing machine in a cabinet. Knowing how much I love my Necchis, she asked me if I would be willing to look it over and clean it up. Her mom had picked up the machine at a yard sale for $10, so the request was practical, not sentimental. Thankfully, she wasn’t in a hurry because I haven’t had time to get to it. I pulled it out yesterday.

There are Necchis and there are Necchis. Like many other sewing machine manufacturers, Necchi moved its operations to China, Taiwan, and elsewhere in the 1970s. Nylon and plastic parts started showing up in machines. This is a Necchi 534FB (FA = free arm, FB = flatbed). I’ve never worked on one of these before. This model does have a toothed belt system—two belts, intended to provide more torque—but is otherwise fairly straightforward.

Alas, it contains a time bomb.

These nylon parts, be they gears or bushings or other pieces under stress, tend to yellow and crack. This is on the bobbin drive shaft. This machine might work fine for another five years, or it might self-destruct next week. (Rather like the transfer case on the BMW.) The husband opined that these parts potentially could be replaced with 3-D printed ones, but I have no interest in going down that road.

I cleaned the machine thoroughly. I’ll do a sewing test on it today, although I did plug it in yesterday to make sure everything was running smoothly.

I also pulled out a Singer 500A—a Rocketeer—and worked on it. The 500 model has built-in cams for decorative stitches. The 503 is similar, but with plastic cams that can be swapped in and out. (I’ve got two 503s waiting to be cleaned up.) Rocketeers are probably my second-favorite machine after the Necchis. This wasn’t the dirtiest Rocketeer I’ve ever seen. That honor belongs to mine, which was filthy and half hanging out of the cabinet when I found it at the thrift store for $10. Cosmetically, the one I worked on yesterday looked like it had been rode hard and put away wet, as we say out here. The insides were in relatively good shape and all the parts were moving freely, but the fact that the machine looks so beat up makes me wonder if the mechanisms were abused, too. That one is ready for a sewing test today, too, so we’ll find out.

I have the two 503s and a 401 to work on yet. Those are solid machines and I’d like to find good homes for them. I also want to check out the Viking/Husqvarna that came from my neighbor, Kim. It was her mom’s machine. Elaine has the same model. I’ve never sewn on one and I want to try it out. And if I get all of those cleaned up, I have a few old Singers that could be rehabbed. The husband is also going to help me finish taking apart the Singer 66 I began dismantling two summers ago. I want to remove the guts of that one entirely and see if our friend, Bill, will clean it up for me in his blasting cabinet so I can repaint it. I need a bigger hammer for that job, though.

I Prefer -15 Degrees

So do the chickens. It’s easier to keep them warm than to cool them down. The thermometer read 100 degrees yesterday afternoon, so I rigged up a misting station for them:

One of the hose nozzles has a “mist” setting, so I anchored it to the fence and turned on the water. I thought the chickens would stand under it—they love to stand out in the rain—but they preferred to splash in the puddles that formed after an hour or so. Whatever. The aim was to cool them off and I think it worked. I dug a few bags of frozen strawberries out of the freezer for them, too, although Dave now assumes that every time I come out there, it’s to deliver more strawberries.

Dave really is a great rooster. He may end up being the best rooster we’ve ever had. He knows his job and does it well. If he thinks there’s a threat, he hustles the hens into the coop. He makes sure that they know when I bring treats out. He knows his name and will stop and look at me (out of one eye or the other) when I talk to him. He’s a bit standoffish with humans—even me—but he is never aggressive. And he is handsome and he knows it.

It appears we have a rooster among the pullets. One of the White Rock chicks is starting to look and act like one. If he starts to crow, we will be sure. I was hoping not to have to train any roosters this year, but if he watches Dave, he might learn something.

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I stopped at Cathy’s yesterday morning on my way to town to run errands. If I hadn’t been on a schedule, we probably could have sat around for several hours, catching up. I don’t think I’ve seen her in person for almost a year, although we message back and forth. I took a jar of Rhubarb BBQ sauce to her, and she gifted me with this:

She was shopping on Renaissance Ribbons and saw this ribbon and bought it for me. It will make a nice embellishment on a sewing machine cover or some zipper pouches. How cute!

The husband is out working in this heat. I don’t know how he does it, other than he is very good at staying hydrated. Most crews are trying to pour early in the morning to avoid the worst of it. Last night over dinner, I showed him the pictures of the concrete buckling on I-5 in Seattle. And there was a 20-acre wildfire in Issaquah yesterday, which is a suburb east of the city. (That’s where DD#1 worked when they lived in Seattle.) Things are a mess over there. DD#2 happens to be in San Diego at the moment, visiting a friend, so she’s missing the worst of it. My Portland friends have been through the wringer, too—I hope you’re all okay?

I run the sprinklers out in the garden from 6-9 every morning, just to keep things from drying out.

The upstairs gets too hot in the afternoons for me to sew, even with the fan on (which also blows pieces of fabric around). I think I will go out to the old garage and work on some machines today. It’s nice and cool out there. I could also clean the basement.

The long-term forecast improves only slightly; I expect it will be in the 80s and 90s and dry for most of the next two months. That’s not atypical for Montana in the summer, but I don’t enjoy it.

Heat on the Way

The husband and I spent all day yesterday getting ready for this coming heat wave. I mowed the yard and trimmed with the weedeater. We put grass clippings as mulch around the fruit trees, which we do every summer because they help retain moisture. The husband pounded T-posts around the garden for me and set up the sprinklers. We took the last bit of shade cloth from the roll that my friend Scott gifted me a couple of years ago and hung it up in the chicken coop:

That will give the chickens a cool(er) space to hang out. I thought about rigging up some kind of misting system, too, but that would require de-energizing the electric fence around the coop. I might just put pans of water out in the chicken yard for them to stand in. The coop has a concrete floor and has only a thin layer of pine shavings on it right now, so they can lie down on the floor to keep cool, as well.

[All of the surviving chickens appear to have recovered from their respiratory illness. The roosters were back to chasing each other around the chicken yard yesterday so they must be feeling better.]

The pigs have plenty of shade and an on-demand watering system. I’ll go out periodically and make sure they have a wallow for cooling off. The husband went to a nearby farm and got the 1000-pound feed tote filled with pig food. It sits on a pallet next to the Piggy Palace. He extended the electric fence so that it goes around the tote, too, to discourage any curious bears.

The tomatoes and zucchini, which were already looking really good, will probably be amazing after a week of this heat.

We don’t have AC, but our house is well insulated and stays 10-15 degrees cooler than outside. As long as I keep the shades drawn upstairs, it’s usually cool enough that we can sleep with just a box fan running.

This will be a good week to spend some time in the old garage working on sewing machines. It’s nice and cool in there. I’ve got three machines in particular that I would like to get cleaned up and running.

I’ve been chipping away at my current quilting project. The blocks are not difficult to put together, but they are based on a 5 x 5 grid—25 squares measuring 2-1/2” each—and some of the 2-1/2” squares are half-square triangles and hourglass units. I have to make all the units, first, then sew them into a block. I’ve got the Janome set up with Diagonal Seam Tape for making the units, and Vittorio, my Necchi, set up for sewing the blocks together. I found that trying to chain piece multiple blocks was too confusing, so I gather all the pieces for one block and make one block at a time. One block takes about 30 minutes to make, which provides a nice sewing break. If I do the size quilt I envision, I’ll need 42 blocks plus sashing and cornerstones. I’ve made nine blocks so far.

Huckleberries should be ready to pick soon. I have been waging an ongoing battle here in an attempt to keep the huckleberry bushes on our property from being destroyed. We had a patch up on the north corner of our property, but part of that area got cleaned out last summer to provide better access to the easement for our neighbor’s horse trailer, and there went those bushes. There is another patch by the woodshed, but the husband got a bit enthusiastic with the backhoe a few months ago and bulldozed some of the bushes into oblivion. (To be fair, huckleberries are not high on his list of priorities.) Yesterday, he was cleaning up some overgrown grassy areas with the brush mower. When I saw him heading for that huckleberry patch by the woodshed—or what’s left of it—I went and stood over one of the bushes. I felt like one of those environmentalists chained to a tree to keep it from being cut down, LOL. I’m going to have to lay in a supply of orange flags and mark all of the bushes so they have a fighting chance.

Getting Better

There was a dead pullet in the coop at lunchtime yesterday when I went in to make sure everyone had fresh water and food. The rest of them look fine, so let’s hope that was an isolated incident. The big chickens seem to have recovered. Dave was outside most of yesterday, and Baby was walking around inside the coop. Dave started crowing again—after three days of being quiet—but he has laryngitis and sounds like a rusty gate.

We have a new rule: No more off-farm imports. Either we get chicks from the farm store or we hatch them out ourselves. I don’t care if someone wants to give us 25 laying hens for free; I am not going through this again.

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I was able to get the new toner cartridge to work—briefly—yesterday, but I think the drum is screwed up now. I ordered a replacement drum. If the new drum/toner combo does not work, this machine is getting trashed, much as I hate to do that. I will not spend the price of another printer attempting to get this one operational with no guarantees that I’ll be successful.

I did run into town yesterday to get an inkjet printer. I can’t run a business without a printer, and stuff was starting to pile up on my desk. I hand wrote this week’s payroll checks. Besides, a color printer would be useful for for class handouts. I bought a small Epson wireless printer and got it up and running in just a few minutes. My preference is a laser printer, but this will be a good backup to have, and the husband can keep it down in his office.

Death by a thousand paper cuts.

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After getting the printer up and running and clearing the logjam from my desk, I made this:

My sergers came with very cheap, very ill-fitting plastic covers. I ran across this tutorial for making a cover for the Brother 1034 serger—which has a similar profile to my Juki sergers—and thought I’d see how I liked it. It is a huge improvement over the plastic ones, and I love that print. The cover in the tutorial is interfaced but not lined. I interfaced the main print of mine with fusible fleece and made a lining out of a coordinating small print. I sewed them together, right sides facing and leaving an opening at the bottom for turning, then topstitched around the bottom edge. This took about two hours, start to finish, and I am very happy with it. I’ll make one for the other serger at some point.

Also, I made this entirely on my beloved 73-year-old Necchi sewing machine, which is a testament to how things used to be made.

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I was reminded this week that kids remember everything. Last summer, when I was helping to ferry WS back and forth to Kids’ College, I usually drove the BMW in Sport mode. The default mode is Comfort and I don’t always remember to change it when I get in, but Sport mode is way more fun for driving. As we were pulling in to the college parking lot on Tuesday, he said, “Are you driving in Sport mode?” (Well, that came out of nowhere.) I said no, but I could drive in Sport mode on the way home. Naturally, as we were walking out to the car after class, he said, “Don’t forget to put the car in Sport mode!” And then he wanted a detailed explanation of how Sport mode differed from the other modes. I don’t ever drive the car in Eco mode, because it feels like a lumbering 1970s Cadillac, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a BMW. The car also comes with Sport+ mode, but I told him that we could only drive Sport+ mode if we were on a closed course in Munich.

I am sure that me—a middle-aged woman with just enough knowledge about cars to be dangerous—trying to explain the difference in driving modes to a 7 year-old was hilarious. I am glad no one else was around. I told him that changing the mode changes the handling and acceleration. The husband says that changing the mode also changes the shift points in the transmission. WS likes to make noises like he’s shifting gears when I am driving, so I told him that sometime we would ride in the Acura. (The BMW has paddle shifters, but it’s just not the same.)

Sick Chickens

I am hoping the carnage will be over soon. I came home from town yesterday to find three more dead hens. The current death toll stands at six. I would not be surprised if we lose a few more yet, although everyone was okay when the husband checked on them this morning. Baby spent most of yesterday tucked into a nesting box and Dave hung around inside the coop. I’d rather not lose any animals, but I am most concerned about my roosters.

I still suspect this is a virus, so antibiotics would only be useful in preventing secondary infections. In any case, the farm store does not carry chicken antibiotics, only horse, cow, and pig medications. I did pick up a bag of pig wormer to be added to the piglets’ feed. That was recommended by our pork supplier, and this is the week it needs to be administered. Some of the livers from last year’s batch of pork didn’t pass inspection because of liver flukes.

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I spent a frustrating two hours messing with the laser printer yesterday. About a year and a half ago, I finally gave up on the second of two color laser printers, the first an HP and the second a Xerox. They were hideously expensive to operate, and because I wasn’t printing knitting patterns any longer (everything is digital download now), we went to black and white. I really liked—past tense—this Brother printer. The toner JUST ran out last week, but replacing the cartridge has been a major headache. The first time, I ordered the wrong cartridge. I sent it back and got the correct one, but after putting it in, I am getting continual error messages instructing me to close the cover on the machine. It’s closed.

Judging by the YouTube videos explaining how to get around this problem, this is not an uncommon issue. I followed the instructions in the videos to reset the toner counter, which is supposed to fix the problem. I followed them about a dozen times but continued to get the error message. I called Brother support. Of course, the printer is out of warranty. Of course, the tech support person helping me was reading off a printed flow chart and had me do the exact troubleshooting I had done a dozen times already. Of course, it didn’t work. She concluded that the machine must be broken, and her only solution was for me to take the printer to an authorized service center. The nearest service center is in Spokane. By that point, I had had it, so I said, “That is unacceptable. I am never buying another Brother product again,” and hung up.

Within 15 minutes, I had a survey in my e-mail inbox asking me about my experiences. I gave it to them with both barrels. Interestingly, I put the old toner cartridge back into the machine and I don’t get the error message. The machine isn’t broken.

I’ll hammer at the problem a bit more today. In the meantime, I scrounged an old HP inkjet printer out of the storage container—left here by a kid—and I’ll try to get that one working just so the husband can print out some plans.

These are the kinds of stupid issues that make me feel like I am being pecked to death by ducks. Is it too much to ask that a replacement toner cartridge work upon installation? Yes, apparently it is. I miss the HP LaserJet 1200 that worked flawlessly for 24 years until a bearing wore out.

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The warnings about this impending heat wave continue to get more dire. Spokane and Seattle are both expected to shatter records with temps into the 100s. We’re on the eastern edge of the bubble, so I don’t think we’re going to get that hot, but it’s still going to be pretty awful. The tomatoes, cukes, and zucchinis are going to love the hot weather. I am hoping the lettuce doesn’t bolt. This hasn’t been a good year for lettuce, for some reason.

Every gardening year is different.

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I pulled out some of my sewing fabric for a quick project. I love this one—it’s the mice from Cinderella:

I am sure I’ll have a fair bit of sewing time next week while it’s hot. I’ve got a Firefly Tote ready to start, too, as Anna has just released the first video for the sewalong.

Pandemic in the Coop

Our chickens are sick. Egg production fell of a cliff a couple of weeks ago—we have been getting 5-8 eggs a day at a time when we should be getting a couple dozen. That sometimes happens when they are molting, or in late summer when it’s really hot, but neither of those things are happening right now. Earlier in the week, I found two dead birds in the coop, but that’s not out of the ordinary. They were older hens and hens sometimes drop dead for no obvious reason. The husband found another dead one the next day.

Yesterday afternoon though, when I went out to the coop, I could tell something was wrong. The chickens—especially Dave, the rooster—normally get very excited when I show up to give them their afternoon scratch grains. No one was excited. Most of them were droopy and lethargic. By the time the husband got home, some of the chickens were coughing.

We cleaned the coop thoroughly and replaced the bedding. He said all but one came in to roost, which was a good sign, but we didn’t know what we would find this morning. I was expecting a bunch of dead chickens. It was also eerily quiet; Dave usually starts up as soon as he sees a sliver of daylight, but all he could manage this morning was an anemic croak. We did not find any more dead chickens, but most of them are coughing and looking unhappy. The pullets, thankfully, don’t seem to be affected.

We’ve had chickens for more than 10 years and never had a problem like this. I looked online and I’m leaning toward infectious bronchitis as the diagnosis. I am wondering if it came in with the 10 Leghorns we got about a month ago. The husband was doing a job for someone who raises show chickens and these were hens that she didn’t want to breed. She offered them to him for free. I expect that her chickens were vaccinated, but recovered chickens can still be asymptomatic carriers. The Leghorns don’t seem to be affected by this. They are also the only chickens that have been laying reliably lately.

We might still lose a few chickens, but this infection should clear within a week. Unfortunately, it’s probably now going to be endemic in our flock and we’ll probably have to vaccinate from now on. (The vaccine can be administered in their water.) Hopefully, it won’t affect the pullets. And we’re going to have to rig up some kind of cooling system this weekend. The chickens don’t like hot weather, and chickens that are already stressed by illness are going to have a much harder time in 90+ degree heat.

In other news, I do have a broody hen—one of the Light Brahmas has been on a nest for almost three weeks now and I am hoping to see chicks soon.

Oh, and the irony?—infectious bronchitis is caused by a coronavirus. :-/

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I weeded the corn yesterday morning, then top-dressed it with a thick layer of compost. And then we got a nice, gentle rain for a couple of hours, so that was great. My assistants were busy digging up the pasture:

They’ll have plenty of shade in the heat next week. I’ll also make them a big mud wallow to roll around in.

Here Comes the Heat

Those of us who have lived here for a long time joke about needing a good natural disaster to clear out some of these tourists and newly-imported residents, but my level of concern about wildfires is starting to ratchet up. I have one of the Spokane news stations in my Twitter feed. (Monitoring the news stations, traffic reports, and weather in Spokane and Seattle is all Twitter is good for, in my opinion.) Last night, the station had footage of a brush fire within the city limits. In fact, the fire was only about a quarter of a mile north of the BMW dealer and close to one of my favorite Indian restaurants. The news report said that another nearby restaurant had to evacuate during the dinner rush when the hillside next to them went up in flames. Spokane is under an excessive heat warning from Friday afternoon until Tuesday, and that heat is headed our way next week. I am seeing forecast highs in the high 90s. This currently-green vegetation will dry out quickly, and all it’s going to take is some idiot dragging chains on the highway or flicking a cigarette out the window and we’ll be off to the races. It’s going to be a long couple of months. Summers are great for road trips, but I am going to be sticking close to home.

We’ve also had more than the usual number of jerks visiting the neighboring state and federal hiking areas. The amount of traffic out here has increased exponentially. I was blasted out of a sound sleep at 3:43 this morning by someone who thought it would be fun to drive by our house while gunning his (very loud) engine. It was so loud that at first, I thought someone had hit a tree in our yard. (That has happened before.) None of these people seem to have mufflers on their vehicles. Our house sits on a straightaway just after a curve. Drivers come around that curve and take off like it’s a NASCAR speedway. Our road is also a popular cycling route, and I worry that it’s only a matter of time before we have an accident out there.

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I am done organizing fabric. My mother shipped me a box of leftovers a few weeks ago—she’s no longer making masks—and all of that has been pressed and added to the stash.

Elysian’s son is doing Kids’ College again this summer. I ran errands yesterday morning and was happy to provide transportation, which also gave me an excuse to take him to lunch afterward. He’s in a math camp class this week. I asked him what they were learning. He said they have learned such marketable life skills as playing War, Rummy, and Go Fish. I wondered if poker was on the syllabus as the teacher seems very laid back. I am providing transportation again later this week, so I’ll find out what else they’ve learned.

[I picked up a booster seat to keep in my car for when I have him or Ali’s little guy with me. WS was very impressed that the booster seat came with cup holders.]

The husband is on a bit of a concrete hiatus this week because the batch plants can’t find enough mixer drivers. (Oh, the oft-heard refrain . . . ). He’s used to being able to call a day ahead and order concrete, but he tried to do that this week and they couldn’t fit him into the schedule. He says it’s very similar to several years ago when all the general laborers left here to go work in the oil fields in North Dakota, except that this labor shortage is courtesy of the federal government paying people to sit on their asses. He and the crew are prepping jobs for next week when they will be able to pour again.

We’re about to be overrun by raspberries. The canes are loaded:

If anyone wants to come harvest and take some home, let me know. These should be ready in another week or two.

Do You Know Where Your Fabric Is?

We sing a song in church about building bigger barns, the point being that if you have to build a bigger barn to hold your stuff, you’re doing it wrong. I think about that song as I am trying to downsize, consolidate, and move stuff out of my house, although much of what has arrived on the incoming tide over the past couple of years has come from family members. There definitely exists a tension between “enough” and “too much” and I try to be cognizant of that tension. I am making a real effort not to buy any more fabric until I use up some of what I have.

I started organizing my stash yesterday, after obtaining additional clear plastic bins and labels last week. (The bins are clear, yes, but they are stored in a room that doesn’t get any outside light to prevent fading.) This organization is helpful on several fronts.

• I see that I have plenty of fabric.

• I see that I have an abundance of blues and should not buy any more.

• Seeing my fabric sparks creative ideas.

• I can find specific fabrics quickly.

• My kids will know what to do with it after I’m gone.

I have a system. Fabrics is first organized by fiber. I have a bin for linens, a bin for flannels, and a bin for knits. Quilting cottons make up the bulk of my stash. Anything that is mostly of one color family goes into a bin, although blues get subcategorized into light blues, dark blues, and turquoise blues because I have a lot of them. Same with light brown and dark brown. Multi-color prints get divided into florals and geometrics. Novelty prints are divided into bins for Tim Holtz fabric, farm animal prints, music prints, food-themed prints, sewing prints, and everything else.

And all of the bins are labelled:

I cannot work efficiently if I cannot find things. I was pleased to uncover the bin of chiffons and other fancy fabrics, because I am going to use some of them in a decorative edge serger class.

I’ll finish organizing the stash this week, and then any leftover bins will be used to corral stuff in the laundry room. And now that I have the station wagon back, I’ll be taking a few loads in to donate to the thrift stores.

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I am pleased with the garden’s progress thus far, although I think the corn could do with an application of some hot chicken manure. That’s on the to-do list for this week. We are supposed to be close to 90 by next weekend. Things should start to take off then, and the garden will look really nice around the second week of July. I need to make a decision about an herb garden out there. We have the space. I just need to decide how to arrange it.